[Seeing as Henry is almost four months
old, I thought I'd post the update I wrote back when he turned three
months.]
My sweet little three-month-old. Henry,
you just keep getting sweeter and more fun! Here's what your life is
like right now:
You moved up to size 2 diapers and
promptly pooped out the side of one while I was burping you one
night. Poop in my belly button—a first for me.
Another first for me: You pooped as
I was wiping you the other day. Since I was already staring
intently at your behind, I had a front-row seat for this rare glory.
You're getting better at grabbing
things and bringing them to your mouth. Right now, your favorite
things to grab: your hands, our fingers, the yellow phone rattle
(Daddy's when he was a baby), the cage ball with a rattling ball
inside, my hair, and burp cloths.
Speaking of mouthing things, for the
past few weeks you have been seriously chomping down on things (as
opposed to just sucking). You even bruised your little knuckle! That
made me sad, so whenever I see you biting your hand too vigorously, I
try to substitute my finger or a toy.
You are escaping regularly from even
our best swaddles. This makes me want to wean you off the swaddle,
but the other day I tried swaddling just one arm (leaving your right
arm, your favorite, for you to suck on) and it kept you from ever
falling asleep. I guess for now you still need to be swaddled, so I
take this as a personal challenge from you to step up our swaddle
game. I'm thinking duct tape or ace bandage.
You seem to appreciate our sleep time
routine more, and you're much easier to put to sleep. No crying—just
sometimes a minute or two of fussing/fidgeting/grunting in my arms
before getting droopy eyelids. At night, you're consistently sleeping
about seven hours, waking in the wee hours for a meal, and then
sleeping two to three more hours before your first meal of the day.
You are a sleeping champ! That week or so of nine- to ten-hour nights
(right around two months) was a tease, but this is still super great,
and I'm very thankful that you're sleeping so well.
One of your most precious new
developments is stroking my shirt with the palm of your hand while
you nurse. Back and forth, back and forth. So precious. And then, as
if I needed another reason to absolutely adore you, once you're not
super hungry anymore you look up at me until I notice you, and then
give me the biggest, sweetest, happiest smile—and then go back to
nursing. Usually we're not in a hurry, so I confess to letting this
go on for quite a while. After a bit of a rough start with
breastfeeding, I consider it our special reward for all that hard
work and perseverance.
You can curl yourself onto your side,
but you're not going from back to tummy just yet. You clearly want to
move yourself, though—if you're tired of lying on your back or
sitting in the bouncer, you'll grunt and strain, lifting up your head
and straightening your arms and legs. Daddy and I like to imagine
you're saying to yourself, “One, two, three, getmeoutofhere!” or
“one, two, three, somewhereelsenow!” And then we laugh (sorry).
This isn't something new, but I love
how you shrug your shoulders up when you talk. It is seriously so
cute, and I've been trying to capture it on video.
You grab your feet, suck your thumb,
control your head really well, follow us around the room with your
eyes, and smile at the baby in the mirror.
